SCHENECTADY — While roads washed away and residents were evacuated in other parts of the county, Cleveland Avenue neighbors looked out their windows and smiled.

In the pouring rain, their street was clear.

It used to be that a few inches of rain was enough to turn the road into a river — literally. Residents paddled out in canoes and snapped photographs as they floated down the street.

The city spent $1.65 million last year trying to fix the problem by repairing and replacing stormwater pipes. It was part of a two-year, $4 million project to address the wettest parts of the city, where even a little rain would send water and sewage into cellars and turn yards into lakes.

This week’s storm was one of the first tests of that completed project. Residents couldn’t quite believe their eyes when everything actually worked.

“I didn’t know they did it until I looked last night and it wasn’t coming up,” said Peggy Ellis, pointing to a sewage manhole cover in front of her East Front Street home. The covers used to rock back and forth in the rain as water pressure built up beneath them. Eventually, they would explode upward, scattering sewage across the street, yards, cars and anyone unfortunate enough to be standing nearby.

Ellis said she sniffed the air cautiously when she saw the manhole cover wasn’t even shaking. Then, finally convinced that the sewage wasn’t going to leave the pipes, she let her grandson play in the puddles for the first time.

“You could actually do that,” she said. “Before, I didn’t let him play.”

Brandyn Ellis-Hall, 8, said he liked listening to the manhole covers jump and shake in past storms.

“They go wooomp-wooomp. You couldn’t hear them this time,” he said regretfully.

His grandmother laughed. She doesn’t miss the sewage one little bit.

“It was worth it, every penny. It was really worth it,” she said.

The city spent $600,500 digging away 2 feet of sediment that had built up in the pipe beneath the street. Residents had been a little dubious as to whether the expensive project — once estimated to cost more than $2 million — would actually work. But seeing is believing.

LEADERSHIP lauded

“It’s been a long time since we had competent management,” said East Front Street resident Tony Montone, who professed himself fully satisfied with the city’s work. “The streets were clear, completely, and we had some hard rain.”

Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen said Tuesday’s storm would normally have closed 10 streets, including portions of Guilderland Avenue, Cleveland Avenue, East Front Street, Weaver Street and North Jay Street.

The city did have to close Cleveland Avenue at the intersection with Guilderland Avenue for three hours late Tuesday night, but the water didn’t do any property damage and homeowners said they were unaffected.

“It flooded to just above the curb line,” Olsen said. “But we anticipated that. That improvement isn’t going to handle 4 inches in 14 hours. But without that improvement, you would have needed a boat.”

Residents used to need a boat on North Jay Street, too. The city spent $1 million to fix that problem, where up to 3 feet of water would flood the street at the intersection with Erie Boulevard. On some occasions, the backup threatened to close a portion of Erie Boulevard, which would have reduced traffic on a major city artery. This time, both roads were clear.

So were the boulevards, the site of the city’s most recent flooding-mitigation work.

“Our Grand Boulevard pipes performed very well. Normally, that area would be flooded,” Olsen said. “We’re holding our own.”

Next, he wants to install bigger stormwater pipes on Oneida Street.

“We had no problems there, but ... if you had a thunderstorm that produced 2 inches of rain in 30 minutes, you would’ve had problems,” Olsen said. “You can’t do everything at once, but Oneida would be the next logical progression of what we’ve done on Grand Boulevard.”

He hasn’t even begun the cost estimates for that job yet, so the project may be years away.

Cleveland Avenue residents understand that all too well. The city spent two years studying their problem before beginning to debate the cost and another year before actually starting work. All of that was several years after frustrated residents began canoeing down the street to highlight the extent of the flooding.

But they aren’t complaining about the pace now.

“Mayor Stratton made a promise in his campaign and it came through,” said Cleveland Avenue resident Schellie Tedesco. “They did a great job.”

One of the residents who posed for canoeing pictures all those years ago added that it was worth the wait.

“It’s working,” he said. “I’m very pleased.”